Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
-I Peter 2:1
As followers of Christ there are always some things we must lay aside in order to walk in the fullness of God’s grace. Peter lists some of them here as an example; malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Any of those things have the potential to keep us from being the kind of people the Lord would have us to be. By the power of the Holy Spirit we put those destructive tendencies from us and we replace them with the fruit of the Spirit.
Malice is any ill will one might feel for another person. To feel malice is to not only hold ill will towards another, but it could also involve the planning of the hurt of another person. Have you ever heard the legal term, “Malice aforethought?” This refers to a pre-meditated act of harming another person. The Bible clearly says that believers are never to harbor such evil thoughts in our hearts. What are we to do with those who have wronged us? We are to lift them up to God and let Him deal with them. When we do that we are practicing what Jesus said about praying for and loving our enemies so that we may be the sons (and daughters) of our Heavenly Father.
No comments:
Post a Comment